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February 13, 1939 - August 31, 2011
Valeri Rozhdestvenski flew with Vyacheslav Zudov as Flight Engineer on the Soyuz 23/Salyut 5 space station mission.
When their capsule returned to Earth it landed on a partially frozen Lake Tengiz, the first splashdown in the Soviet space program. While there was no concern over their safety, recovery was slowed due to inclement weather. After splashdown the capsule sank and the crew had to wait until the next day for choppers to bring in divers, flotation devices and other equipment to extricate them. Their adventure is pretty much a legend in the space community.
May you continue to fly high Valeri
High Flight
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.
- Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee
No 412 squadron, RCAF
Killed 11 December 1941
Valeri Rozhdestvenski flew with Vyacheslav Zudov as Flight Engineer on the Soyuz 23/Salyut 5 space station mission.
When their capsule returned to Earth it landed on a partially frozen Lake Tengiz, the first splashdown in the Soviet space program. While there was no concern over their safety, recovery was slowed due to inclement weather. After splashdown the capsule sank and the crew had to wait until the next day for choppers to bring in divers, flotation devices and other equipment to extricate them. Their adventure is pretty much a legend in the space community.
May you continue to fly high Valeri
High Flight
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.
- Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee
No 412 squadron, RCAF
Killed 11 December 1941